5/14-5/16 Red Sox @ Rays Series Thread

Luckily, planned trip to St. Pete coincided with this series. I'll be there Tuesday in the stands (as a fan, not working or anything). Pumped to get a look at Moore.

I would prefer he start on the 16th of never. BIG series for "the good guys". Lets hope we start to turn it around.

As of this past Friday, they were lining up Doubront for the start on the 16th, according to Drellich.

Oh I hope not. That would line Doubront up for May 26th against Cleveland and I'm going to that game at Fenway. I would much prefer to see Buchholz, who I thought I was going to see.

I guess Farrell's breaking up Lester and Buchholz figuring the bullpen will require less work when Lester and Buchholz pitch and would be more available for when Doubront pitches his 5 innings.

Anyone see a line-up yet? there was some specualtion that Farrell would move Pedey back to his customary 2nd spot with Papi 3rd and Napoli 4th ?

I'm not sure that's the problem though...

I'd like to see Lavarnway get a start against either of the Lefthanders here.

When will Doubront get his next start? I'm not sure what the case is, if he is injured or what, but continually skipping his start will not help. He already has very good stuff, he just needs to work on control, consistency, and working deeper into games. If that happens, he can be a good starting pitcher.

And The Lavarnway shall be called up from the wilderness and he shall leadeth them from the place of darkness to the place of light (i.e. one more right-handed bat against lefties, and a potential higher OBP candidate to perhaps advance some of the legion of runners who've been stranded on base).

Going back to last August may be a small sample, or it may mean he's not all that good. What are we talking about, ten starts? He's been unlucky on balls in play so far this year - his strikeout rates have been good, and he's allowed just one home run, and his ground ball rates are up. There are some factors that show positives, some that show negatives. In his only bad start, he gave up 10 singles to a good hitting team. That screams fluke to me.

I'll be honest - I've been defending Doubront the last couple weeks, and it feels kind of funny because I don't actually think he's all that great of a pitcher. I do know that he's only 25, and that whatever has been done with him the past two weeks doesn't seem eminently sensible. I'm not advocating having him "stinking it up in the rotation until he's 'fixed'" because I don't think he'll stink if he's given regular work - he had a 4.86 ERA last year, and a 4.24 ERA this year before the Texas start blew him up. My guess is that he's a pitcher in the 4.40-4.80 ERA range, which makes him a fifth starter, which is exactly what the Red Sox need right now. If he's not improving by July, by all means send him off to the bullpen. But the Red Sox have scraped away what little depth they have for what seems like an overreaction to a bad start against the Rangers.

2003 through 2008 was fun and all, but most teams can't just cut everyone who isn't an all-star. Felix Doubront (and Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who faces similar criticism), aren't superstars and may have limited upside, but they're acceptable back end major leaguers for a team that doesn't have better options.

He's been a little unlucky maybe, but not as unlucky as a cursory look at his BABIP might suggest. He's got a 27% LD rate, and while a high GB rate (50%) is good in general, ground balls have a higher BABIP than fly balls; using an xBABIP calculator his batted ball data suggests a ?.360 BABIP.

Just noticed that James Loney is leading the Rays in hitting with a 376 average and also has 20 rbis ( 109 abats). His line drive rate is also very high. Does Maddon and staff have a magic wand? I recall an article that had Maddon telling Loney to just be a good defender and a line drive hitter, forget the long ball. Seems it is working so far

It's worth noting that although Gomes is starting tonight against the lefty Moore, and that is why he was acquired, Nava is still hitting lefties so far this year better than Gomes is. Nava is 5 for 21 (.238/.333/.524/.857) verse southpaws, while Gomes is 6 for 32 (/.188/.366/.438/.803) against them. This is still a VERY SMALL sample size though. I know that Gomes has to get playing time because he is getting paid 5 million, has good power, and he was signed to play against southpaws, but Nava is currently hitting them better. In addition, Nava plays great defense in left field, while Gomes is more of a liability in the field. Just bringing out a point. I'm not saying Gomes should by any means be benched, but eventually, Nava could be in for a little more playing time if he continues to hit well and Gomes continues to struggle.

You may have been for signing Hunter on a 1 year overpay but I doubt Torii Hunter would have been all for a 1 year overpay, and in the end its his opinion that matters the most. It sounded like he really wanted to play in Detroit and that he wanted multiple years. Unless you wanted to see the Sox sign him for $20 - $22 million for that one year, I doubt there was ever a chance Hunter was coming to Boston.